In July 2009, our beautiful son Adam was diagnosed with high-risk neuroblastoma, an aggressive children's cancer. Despite four years of treatment in the UK, Germany, and America, Adam sadly passed away on 11th July 2013 at home with his family. Visit Adam's Appeal at http://adamsappeal.org.

Thursday, 10 February 2011

Still not crashed yet ...

We are still waiting for Adam's blood counts to hit rock bottom. Yesterday his haemoglobin dropped to a level where they gave him a three-hour transfusion, and his platelets are hovering just above the threshold at which they'll need topping up. His white blood cell and neutrophil count are low, though still above zero; they are expected to crash by the weekend. He's been started on a potassium supplement, but aside from that all is well.

Wednesday was a pretty shitty day, Adam lay around not eating and feeling pretty sorry for himself. He was sick during the afternoon, just wasn't able to hold down what he'd just eaten. I have to say partially digested banana comes out a lot whiter than it goes in. What? It was just an observation!

Thursday has been a much brighter day. Although not wanting to eat much Adam has at least wanted something now and again. Better still he's actually kept it all down. Now he's off IV fluids we have to try and ensure he drinks at least a litre of liquid each day. I can tell you that when you are only drinking water, and drinking it through a straw, that is not so straightforward. It took a great deal of persistence and coaxing throughout the course of the day to get Adam to consume the required 7+ cups, but we got there in the end. He's been in a happy mood throughout; this morning we even managed to get him showered and change his clothes and bedding. Aside from the sheer boredom of being stuck inside a hospital room for 95% of the time it's not been a bad day actually.